Bellator 301 results, highlights: Jason Jackson stuns with KO to become champ; Patchy Mix unifies titles

Bellator’s Showtime era came to a close on Friday night with a stunning upset. Jason Jackson took advantage of a flat Yaroslav Amosov to score a third-round TKO and win the welterweight world championship in the main event of Bellator 301.

Jackson was able to fight off several early Amosov takedown attempts while landing some crisp combinations and continued to stuff Amosov’s takedowns round after round, continuing to punish Amosov with hard punches at distance. That would ultimately play out in the third round when Jackson landed a big right hand that staggered Amosov and sent him to the canvas.

Jackson followed up with big shots on the ground until Amosov face planted on the canvas, forcing the referee to jump in at the 2:08 mark of Round 3, ending Amosov’s undefeated run and sending the Ukrainian’s record to 27-1.

“This feels like a dream and I woke up and I still feel like I’m dreaming,” Jackson said after the fight. “I can’t believe it. Remember this, every man has a dream and every man has a nightmare and that’s me. I’m a f—ing nightmare. … I highly believe in these hands, I’ve been working them for a while. A lot of people sleep on my wrestling, but that’s my base.”

Amosov did not connect on any of his 13 takedown attempts, which was the key to Jackson pulling off the upset as a +400 underdog.

Jackson is now riding a seven-fight winning streak which includes victories big names including Amosov, Douglas Lima, Paul Daley, Neiman Gracie and Benson Henderson.

In the co-main event, Patchy Mix scored the biggest win of his career when he unified his interim bantamweight championship with the world title by submitting Sergio Pettis in the second round.

Mix won the interim title with a knockout of Raufeon Stots in the finals of the Bantamweight World Grand Prix, securing a $1 million prize in the process. But winning the world title was his ultimate goal and he did so in dominant fashion against Pettis, who was forced out of the Grand Prix due to injury.

Mix used his elite grappling skills to control the fight on the ground in the opening round but was unable to secure a truly dominant position and work for the finish before the bell sounded. That was not the case in Round 2, as he was able to take the fight to the floor and move to back control, locking in a body triangle before securing the neck and forcing the tap at the 1:51 mark of Round 2.

Pettis was stuck in neutral on the feet as well, a result of Mix using his long limbs to throw kicks while also having the ever-present threat of a takedown that would put the fight immediately into his world.

Now with the world title, Mix is undeniably one of the best in the world at 135 pounds and said he doesn’t care who is the first man up to challenge for the belt.

“It doesn’t matter, man,” Mix said in his post-fight interview. “I’m the best in the world. 135, I’m the best in the world. It doesn’t matter if you sent King Kong in here tonight, I was going to whip his ass.”